Zac Goldsmith urged to stand for Mayor in place of ‘unknown’ Tory runners

Pressure: Tory MP Zac Goldsmith has apparently ruled himself out of the race (Picture: Jeremy Selwyn)

Zac Goldsmith faced pressure today to run to succeed Boris Johnson as Mayor after a poll showed that other possible Tory contenders are unknown to the vast majority of Londoners.

Just under a third of Londoners had heard of Mr Goldsmith, the millionaire ecologist and independent-minded MP for Richmond Park, according to the YouGov survey.

This figure rose to 46 per cent among Tory supporters, with older people and men more aware of who he is.

Mr Johnson has been urging Mr Goldsmith to consider putting his name forward to be the Tory candidate in the 2016 mayoral election.

When asked about such a prospect by the Standard in August, the MP refused to rule it out — but later shut the door on the idea, saying he wanted to continue as an MP.

If Mr Goldsmith does not stand, the Tories appear to be struggling to find a candidate with a public profile to match that of several of Labour’s mayoral hopefuls, including frontrunner Dame Tessa Jowell.

London entrepreneur Ivan Massow has declared his bid to be the Tory challenger, but only nine per cent of Londoners have heard of him.

However, even this is more than the eight per cent who said they knew of London Assembly member James Cleverly.

Stephen Greenhalgh might be deputy mayor for policing and crime, and a former leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, but only seven per cent of Londoners had heard of him.

London Assembly members Andrew Boff and Victoria Borwick, also a deputy mayor, are tied in bottom place with a recognition score of five per cent.

All of them, apart from Mr Goldsmith, were eclipsed by “none of these” on 28 per cent and “don’t know” on 31 per cent, when Londoners were given a list of the possible Conservative candidates and asked to pick any of them they had heard of.

Senior Tories have also been seeking to twist the arm of London 2012 Olympics chief Lord Coe to be their candidate for Mayor — but to no avail.

The peer and Mr Goldsmith are likely to face more pressure to change their minds unless another high-profile candidate comes forward.

Tanya Abraham, of YouGov, said: “The mayoralty is seemingly designed for personality politics and the Conservatives have been blessed with a hugely well-known leader in London.

“But with Boris standing down the Tories’ candidate cupboard looks a bit bare, with only Zac Goldsmith standing out.

“If he doesn’t run then they will either have to start building up the profile of someone else from scratch or will have to try to persuade a big name to stand instead, neither of which will be easy.”